I entered York Hospital via the Emergency Room with pain in my abdomen. A CT scan indicated my appendix needed to be removed as soon as possible. The surgeon needed to do a full incision to remove the appendix. Intra-operatively, there was concern for a possible appendiceal neoplasm, so a right hemicolectomy was performed. He told my husband that he treated the removals as if they were cancer. You can imagine the shock we were in after this news. I was privileged to have Traci Cyr as my nurse during the day. She demonstrated several amazing qualities. Her communication skills were outstanding. Every time she engaged in a dialogue, she was confident, explained what she was doing and why very clearly and was incredibly kind and empathetic. And she communicated so well with others in the room. Multiple times, without prompting, she proactively engaged my husband asking if he had questions or at other points explaining to him what was going on and why she was doing what she was doing at that particular point. Her overall medical knowledge and knowing what needed to be done was clear and exuded confidence. She had a nursing student with her that day and it was wonderful to see how attentive she was to the student nurse and what a great teacher she was. Later in the day when talking to her about the student she shared with us that she had some tough experiences when she was a student nurse and wanted to make sure that didn’t happen to anyone she was mentoring. During my stay, I was awaiting pathology results from the surgery. We got the news late that day that I was negative for cancer. Traci told my husband that she got goosebumps when she heard the news. It is abundantly clear to me and my family that Traci is an incredibly gifted nurse and a wonderful human being. You are incredibly fortunate to have her on your team.